Otherwise, you'll get eaten alive:(Also, be careful of some posters offering to "share" their experiences with you - their real intent is to hook you and sell you something.

Thanks,Sarah  G'Day Sarah,Congrats on the leap of faith into the wonderful world of real estate investing.Best tip I could give you would be to take your time and soak up as much information on anything and everything real estate.Be it buying locally or out of state, the most important thing is to establish trust and relationships with key people dependent on the strategy you are looking at implementing.Over my career I have witnessed countless of investors getting caught up in online market stats, demographics, charts, etc... only to end up loosing money.As cliche as it mind sound but "Team-work makes the dream work"For example, if you buy the best house, in the best area, on the best street with the best capital growth prospects but your property manager is incompetent or a cheat.

It would be cool to meet a few other guys who do real estate share ideas and tips  

@Brooke Roundy as much as we'd like to assist another investor to succeed in our Detroit market, you're probably better off staying in the Cleveland market until you expand enough or decide to leave the Cleveland market.Also, be careful of posters here offering to assist you - many of them aren't transparent that their real motives are to sell you something!

Call it a house hack or not who cares what you call it!

Guellermo,As long as you are current and have made at least 3 months of the CARES Act or modifed payments of the plan you can opt for cash out. 

Any tips or tricks?

I always think it's a good idea to try to keep tenants who pay on time and take care of the home so a smaller increase is a smart idea in my opinion.

Hi Caleb Rehg,If you have employees you will have to pay quarterly PAYROLL taxes, but these can be taken care of by a payroll servicer such as Gusto or ADP.Otherwise, if you expect to have a substantial net income from the rental property at the end of the year, you may opt to make quarterly estimated tax payments so that you that you don't get surprised by a tax amount owed with your tax return.

Hot tip.